Summary of the Invention
Among ignition operating mechanisms for piezoelectric ignition type gas lighters, there is a kind of lighters constructed to generate discharge voltage by pushing the piezoelectric mechanism as a result of slide operation of a pivotally supported operating cap, thereby causing spark discharge at the end of a nozzle to ignite the gas emitting from the nozzle. Gas lighters provided with such slide type ignition mechanism are generally known as slide type (or rocking type) lighters.
Incidentally, piezoelectric gas lighters require any type of safe guard to prevent accidental ignition by carelessly touching the ignition operating mechanism with a finger or the like or in case of children playing with such lighters. Conventional measures to prevent such accidental ignition by carelessness or misuse include increased initial operating load, step-wise increase of the operating load, and double-action of the ignition operation. However, such conventional measures are applicable only to those pushing the operation member in a single direction and thus not applicable directly to the slide type lighters.
In the conventional slide type lighters, design efforts of the operating load were focused on improving the operability. It was therefore difficult to prevent accidental ignition by careless touching the ignition operation member or children playing with the lighters.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome such problems and provide the ignition operating mechanism for slide type lighters which maintains good operability and prevents accidental ignition by careless operation and misuse.